The invention relates in general to munitions and in particular to recoil brakes for guns.
Recoil brakes for guns, such as artillery and howitzers, absorb recoil force when a gun is fired and limit the travel of the gun during recoil. Some guns, such as launchers, may be elevated to deliver a long-range projectile, i.e., the muzzle end of the gun is higher than the breech end. When the angle of elevation is large, the breech end may strike the deck of the surrounding area during recoil. Thus, it is desirable to have a recoil brake that can shorten the recoil distance of the gun when the angle of elevation is large.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,335,464, issued to Schneider on Mar. 30, 1920, discloses an apparatus for varying the recoil of a gun, and is incorporated by reference herein. FIGS. 1-4 of Schneider illustrate a recoil brake having a short stroke orifice and a long stroke orifice. As noted by Schneider at column 2, lines 1-7, a drawback of the recoil brake shown in FIGS. 1-4 of Schneider is that it is difficult to give to the counter-rod F a shape that is suitable to produce a braking law for both the long recoil and the short recoil. Schneider solves this problem with a complex mechanism that is illustrated in FIGS. 5-15 of Schneider. The mechanism of FIGS. 5-15 requires many additional components, compared to the mechanism shown in FIGS. 1-4 of Schneider. A need exists for a simpler recoil brake that operates suitably for both a long recoil stroke and a short recoil stroke.